The unique issues of caring for aging Holocaust survivors will be explored at the world's first-ever multi-disciplinary conference to be held in Toronto at Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care, May 4-7, 1999.
More than 300 delegates from around the world will participate in workshops that examine the challenges of caring for genocide survivors and their second and third generation families who may need coping strategies of their own to deal with the passed-on trauma.
Baycrest is a fitting location for the international conference since it is home to one of the largest groups of elderly Holocaust survivors. Among those attending are health care professionals with experience caring for aging genocide survivors in Canada and abroad, academics, Holocaust survivors and their families, and representatives of international organizations such as the Dutch National Institute for the Victims of War.
Survivors of the more recent genocide in Rwanda will also be attending to learn as much as they can from the Jewish experience.
"It is a terrible irony that as this conference gets underway crimes against humanity continue in other parts of the world creating a w hole new group of survivors who will need special care and support in the years to come," says Paula David, conference coordinator and a social worker at Baycrest Centre who has several years experience working with Holocaust survivors.
In 1994 Baycrest formed the Holocaust Survival Outreach Committee to ensure that health care practices are mindful of the dignity and comfort of survivors who represent almost half of Baycrest's client population. The vulnerabilities of old age, and the somewhat regimented daily routines of a geriatric institution, can trigger anxieties and painful memories for survivors of the death camps.
Several conference workshops will take place during the day, May 5-7 at
Baycrest. Two public forums for survivors and families will take place on the
evenings of May 4 and 5
'"/>
Contact: Kelly Connelly, Media Relations
kconnelly@baycrest.org
416-785-2432
Baycrest
28-Apr-1999